Like the title says, which Star Trek: The Next Generation era RPG would you go with?
There's the Last Unicorn Games version featuring the Icon system. It existed in a world where the TNG series and DS9 had concluded but Voyager was still on the air. The game engine is a dice pool which is somewhat similar to the Silhouette system. Support wasn't exactly expansive, but it did have a few key supplements as well as a separate corebook based on DS9. There's also a pretty cool online only suppelement called Spacedock which is a big expansion for starships.
I ran this one for a handful of adventures back around the turn of the century. I didn't use it for Star Trek, but I thought the system was pretty fun, and had some versatility. There was a little bit of a glitch with the die rolling due to a wild die mechanic, but I think it could probably be easily patched with something like Silhouette's rules for additional high dice.
There's the Decipher version which was called the Coda system. Nemesis and Enterprise were the newest Trek when it hit shelves, and the book has a strong late TNG era slant despite claims it's an all era game. The system is kind of like what if d20 used 2d6 instead and had a completely different philosophy behind feats. The system wasn't supported long, but still managed expansion books for Aliens, Creatures, and Starships. There was also a sort of splatbook for Starfleet officers.
The big problem with the Decipher version is that it's not very well explained. Instead of being intuitive, making a Federation starship crewperson is unduly complicated involving having to select a prestige class type construct right out of the gate. On the plus side, it superficially seems like there's a lot of room for advancement in the system rather than just increasing skills. Also the starship combat seems pretty neat. While the support isn't deep, just about everything is superficially covered, so it's a bit more complete (?) than the Last Unicorn Games version?
Finally, there's Star Trek Adventures. Allegedly it's all eras, just like Decipher's version. But like Decipher's version it has a strong (in this case stated in the text) slant towards TNG era.
Well... It's the currently supported version of the game. There's already lots of material. I don't know how deep it goes. A lot of it seems like splatbooks and adventure books.
When the Decipher version was new, there was a lot of complaints from the RPG purchasing community that Star Trek RPGs only let you play Federation crewpeople. This was actually something the Decipher version attempted to fix by making a bunch of character types which weren't Federation crewpeople. With Star Trek Adventures, the pendulum seems to have swung back to making starship crew. Or at least there are lots of splatbooks along those lines.
I can't venture an opinion as to anything but the most superficial elements of Star Trek Adventures. The base mechanic seems functional. It's just that there's all kinds of extra modern narrative currency mechanics which I can't really guess how they'd work in play. All in all, I find the corebook a bit impenetrable.
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At the moment, I'm leaning towards the Last Unicorn Games Star Trek: The Next Generation game for any potential TNG gaming I may do. But if anyone has any insights into the other two games, I'm definitely curious.
There's the Last Unicorn Games version featuring the Icon system. It existed in a world where the TNG series and DS9 had concluded but Voyager was still on the air. The game engine is a dice pool which is somewhat similar to the Silhouette system. Support wasn't exactly expansive, but it did have a few key supplements as well as a separate corebook based on DS9. There's also a pretty cool online only suppelement called Spacedock which is a big expansion for starships.
I ran this one for a handful of adventures back around the turn of the century. I didn't use it for Star Trek, but I thought the system was pretty fun, and had some versatility. There was a little bit of a glitch with the die rolling due to a wild die mechanic, but I think it could probably be easily patched with something like Silhouette's rules for additional high dice.
There's the Decipher version which was called the Coda system. Nemesis and Enterprise were the newest Trek when it hit shelves, and the book has a strong late TNG era slant despite claims it's an all era game. The system is kind of like what if d20 used 2d6 instead and had a completely different philosophy behind feats. The system wasn't supported long, but still managed expansion books for Aliens, Creatures, and Starships. There was also a sort of splatbook for Starfleet officers.
The big problem with the Decipher version is that it's not very well explained. Instead of being intuitive, making a Federation starship crewperson is unduly complicated involving having to select a prestige class type construct right out of the gate. On the plus side, it superficially seems like there's a lot of room for advancement in the system rather than just increasing skills. Also the starship combat seems pretty neat. While the support isn't deep, just about everything is superficially covered, so it's a bit more complete (?) than the Last Unicorn Games version?
Finally, there's Star Trek Adventures. Allegedly it's all eras, just like Decipher's version. But like Decipher's version it has a strong (in this case stated in the text) slant towards TNG era.
Well... It's the currently supported version of the game. There's already lots of material. I don't know how deep it goes. A lot of it seems like splatbooks and adventure books.
When the Decipher version was new, there was a lot of complaints from the RPG purchasing community that Star Trek RPGs only let you play Federation crewpeople. This was actually something the Decipher version attempted to fix by making a bunch of character types which weren't Federation crewpeople. With Star Trek Adventures, the pendulum seems to have swung back to making starship crew. Or at least there are lots of splatbooks along those lines.
I can't venture an opinion as to anything but the most superficial elements of Star Trek Adventures. The base mechanic seems functional. It's just that there's all kinds of extra modern narrative currency mechanics which I can't really guess how they'd work in play. All in all, I find the corebook a bit impenetrable.
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At the moment, I'm leaning towards the Last Unicorn Games Star Trek: The Next Generation game for any potential TNG gaming I may do. But if anyone has any insights into the other two games, I'm definitely curious.